WHEN Bernard Jones first volunteered to help maintain his cricket club's ground he thought he'd only have to do it for a couple of years.

But four decades later, Bernard is still keeping the wicket at the Coventry Colliery Club in pristine condition.

Dear Sirs

Re: Proposed Kings Hill Lane Development

I work in Kenilworth and have the pleasuring of driving down Kings Hill Lane on my way back from work every day while every other soul fights their way down the A46 and A45 in rush hour.

The beautiful countryside and wildlife provides an escape I feel honoured to experience and I am more likely to meet a horse and rider than any other traffic on my journey.

The deep hedgerows and fields provide a home to nature you are lucky to find in Coventry, and the green belt land is very precious to this wildlife.

I would be horrified to think that this beautiful landscape could be replaced by rows of identical soulless houses with no back gardens, and the area bulldozed to make way for roads and concrete.

I do not yet have any children but when I do I don't want to find that the local playgroups, nurseries and schools are already over-run with children from all the homes our infrastructure cannot possibly accommodate.

The quality of schooling will drop as class sizes increase, and the great reputation of our schools will become diluted and lost. Not to mention the strain on the supporting local amenities and roads in the area.

The idea of cramming so many homes onto the area of Kings Hill is heartbreaking.

Why do we feel we have to take away all the greenery from our area and replace it with houses which are so close together there is no room for gardens and sheds and places for children to play?

How can we expect to be healthy happy people when there are no trees or flowers to look at? These will just be replaced with congested roads, speed bumps and graffiti. Fantastic.

Yours faithfully

Lauren Burgoine

By Sybil Randle

Holyhead Road United reformed Church presents their holiday club for children, Showstoppers!

The Holiday Bible club is for children aged 5-11 years old.

It runs between 24th of August 2009 through to the 28th of August 2009.

The cost of the Holiday club is £5.00.

For more information contact:

Peter Stevenson (t) 7671 7327 (e) revdpete@btinternet.com

Janet Davis (t) 7659 1333 (e) janet_toddlers@tiscali.co.uk

GARDENER Trevor Brown hopes he could be coining it in after being given a rare undated twenty pence coin at his local newsagent.

It comes after it was revealed Royal Mint had last year issued a batch of coins into circulation without dates on them - a mistake that hadn't happened for 300 years.

The London Mint Office offered £50 for any returned coins but a bidding war broke out on eBay with some changing hands for as much as £8,000.

Now the gardener from St James Lane, Willenhall, is planning to cash in on his good luck, after popping over the road to buy a pint of milk and a loaf of bread.

The 42-year-old who lives with his wife Lisa and four month old daughter said: "I have heard all sorts of figures but at the end of the day it's just a twenty pence coin to me.

"I was given it in change from my friend Jim who runs the newsagent. When I went to tell him he was disappointed but he said 'fair play, good on you'. I've spoken to some people who've said they never thought they would see one in Coventry."

During the initial bidding frenzy it was reported a seller in Norwich put his up for sale with a £920,995 price tag - although the eventual price was unknown.

Every time I go to town I try to visit Lady Herberts Garden.

The gardens are so central and it is such a pleasant place to be and to spend a moment or two there away from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives is a real tonic.

Credit should be given to the gardeners as they do a splendid job in keeping everything neat and tidy.

They are pleasant lads too as they will always give me a cheery hello when they see me.

So Hello Dave, Liam an Stuart.


This little spot of heaven is Coventry's jewel in the crown, and visitors too must get much pleasure in coming here to sit for a moment or two before carrying on with their journeys and will hopefully take good memorys of Coventry away with them.

I have to say that the flowers all along the road sides are great and we could be in line to win gold again this year in the flower in bloom competition.

So thanks too to those who keep everything in tip top order.

I know from time to time I get onto my soap box and let off steam about things that are not exactly to my liking but I do belive in free speech so if no-one was ever allowed to comment then it would be a very sad world that we live in.

For the first time pensioners outnumber children in the UK.

The fastest growing age group is the over 80s.

A six part BBC 1 Documentary, Silverville, set in a care village at Milton Keynes, Lovat Fields, built and run by the Coventry based charity, The ExtraCare Charitable Trust, will cover the every day lives of residents who have opted to sell up and move into this purpose built village for the elderly, a fast growing industry, with all amenities included.

Viewers will have an insight into the every day activities of residents, and how life socially is conducted in this New Age Village for the older generation.

The half hour Programmes are scheduled weekly starting on BBC 1 Wednesday 29 July 10.45.

ALLOTMENT holders are fuming that the council has ripped up hedgerows without warning.

Coventry and Warwickshire councils are preparing to consult on plans to build a replacement incinerator next to the existing burner in Whitley.

But gardeners at Coventry's biggest allotment site between London Road and Humber Road say the councils are already tearing up hedges on old allotment plots the gardeners want to bring back into use.

Julian Humphreys, secretary of London Road Allotments Association, said: "Large swathes have been cut through the old hedgerows next to our site. A letter was supposedly sent out to all the residents in the area but not to us."

The old plots were set aside from the rest of the allotment site when the north-south road was planned in the early 1990s, but the bypass was never built.

Now, as the waiting list for allotments grows, gardeners want to bring the plots back into use.

Project Transform, the cross-council team tasked with building the incinerator's replacement, are drilling bore holes to test the ground conditions.

They claim they gave advance warning to local residents but admit they told the allotment association and the Coalition for Recycling and Against Coventry Incinerator (CRACIN) on the day the work started.

Mr Humphreys said: "I'm appalled at the way they've gone about this.

"We were warned there was going to be surveying work but they didn't explain the amount of damage they would do.

"The biggest damage from an allotment point of view is what they are doing to the soil. I seriously doubt they will level the ground and replace the topsoil afterwards, which is what will be needed if you ever wanted to grow anything there again."

John Daly, director of Project Transform, said: "I'm happy with the way people were informed, given that we'd told the allotments association we were going to do the work, though we hadn't formally told them of the start date.

"We're not starting to build. We're doing fairly limited work to get more information."

LIVELY celebrations of Coventry's diverse communities were staged across the city over the weekend.

Festival-goers of various races and nationalities came together in a vibrant show of music, arts and crafts on Saturday under the banner of togetherness.

Willenhall Together Day, which was held at the Haggard Centre in Remembrance Road, Willenhall, attracted a range of people through its doors and gave them the chance to experience different ways of life.

African music was played as traditional delicacies from around the world was served up, and facepainting and a bouncy castle was on hand to keep young children entertained.

Fiseha Salim, who is originally from Eritrea in east Africa but now lives in Willenhall, demonstrated Eritrean coffee making.

And newcomers to the area were also offered the opportunity to learn about the history of Willenhall at a stall run by the Willenhall Local History Group.

John Russell, group chairman, said: "Willenhall has always been a multicultural place and it's what I like about the place, I think it adds to the area.

"I think this event is an excellent idea because it's a way of sharing each other's cultures."

His views were shared by Kerry Thomas, aged 26, of Winnalthorpe, Willenhall, who brought her three children - Paris, eight, Chanell, six, and Joshua, two - to the popular event.

A GROUP of 11 pupils who have not missed a day of school all year met the Lord Mayor and went ice skating as a special treat.

Teachers at St Anne's Catholic Primary School in Chace Avenue, Willenhall, Coventry, organised a visit to the Council House and a session of ice skating at the Coventry Skydome for the dedicated youngsters.

The city's Lord Mayor, Cllr Jack Harrison showed the pupils, aged five to 10, around the Council House and presented each of them with a certificate for having a spotless attendance record.

Cllr Harrison, who introduced himself to the children as Jack, said: "All these pupils have 100 per cent attendance and they've all done very well."

Shantain Ncube, nine, said: "If I don't miss school because I learn more. I enjoy school."

Staff raised the cash for the trip by organising a disco earlier in the year.

ALMOST 3,000 women will be lining up in Coombe Abbey tonight to raise money in the Cancer Research Race for Life.

Organisers are hoping the weather is kinder than last year, when heavy rain turned the green fields into a mudbath.

The race is the second in the Coventry area following the run in Stoneleigh Park last month where more than 7,000 women took part despite more terrible weather.

Organiser Vikki Savery said the race at Coombe, which starts at 7pm, is full with 2,700 women signed up to take part.

They will be running, walking or jogging the 5km course, many in memory of loved ones or as survivors of cancer.

Vikki said: "It's the biggest it's ever been at Coombe.

"It's only been going here for three years and each time it gets bigger.

"Last year was a total washout but the women still turned out and took part, raising more than £200,000, so we know bad weather won't deter them. But of course we're still hoping for a bit of sunshine this year."

It is the 16th year Cancer Research has organised Race for Life events around the country.

So far four million people have taken part and the charity has raised more than £240 million towards trying to find a cure for cancer.

A group of young people will be presenting in Coventry to a group of Head teachers from across the region as part of the national SHINE '09 Festival, explaining how they successfully led the learning of Mathematics in their school.

As part of the SHINE Festival, the pupils from Kineton High School, all aged between 11 and 18, will address a meeting of senior teachers from all over Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire.

The young people will describe how and why they successfully took over the teaching of Maths for a day.

They will be also be showing off some of the exciting activities they devised including: the Family Fortunes style game show, The Great Egg Drop, and mask and kite making activities.

They will explain in detail the challenges they faced and the learning achieved.

All the innovative activities took place as part of Cre8us's Creative Partnerships programme. 

Jo Trowsdale, Director of Cre8us said, "We work in partnership with schools to enhance the learning and cultural experiences of young people.

The students at Kineton High School clearly demonstrated that they can successfully drive a project and lead the learning creatively and responsibly in their school.

Through projects like this, we help schools and other organisations that work with young people, to develop new and innovative approaches that enable them to acquire a wide range of creative skills that are vital for the modern world!"

For more information see www.cre8us.org.uk

Binley Woods Allotments Association has just held its annual best kept allotments competition.

David Duffy from Clifton Allotments Association who was invited to judge the competition said: "Generally the standards varied as would be expected where time is of the essence, if you are working then you have less time than if retired, but there were some outstanding plots."

Hughie Sweeny, Secretary of Binley Woods Association, took first place as the best kept allotment.

If you can to contribute in any way, we would be very grateful, but we particularly need fruit and veg, good quality bric-a-brac, tombola prizes, plants and gardening equipment, and cakes for our tea tent and cake stall.

Most important of all, turn up on the day to support us and enjoy a fabulous day out.

And don't forget it's our Coventry Sunflower Walk on Sunday. If you haven't registered, just turn up on the day.

Wanted - shop volunteers. We are currently recruiting for our Myton shops. For details, ask at one of our shops, call Pinky on 01926 838836 or e-mail pinky.sidhu@mytonhospice.org

ADVENTUROUS Rolls Royce staff are taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

A team of 12 workers and four drivers from the Ansty site, in Coombe Fields Road, are setting off on Friday to climb the three highest mountains in the UK, Snowdon in Wales, Scafell Pike in the Lake District and Ben Nevis in Scotland, within 24 hours.

The team has already raised a whopping £3,822 in online donations and is aiming for the £7000 mark. To sponsor the team visit www.justgiving.com/rolls-royce-ansty3peaks.

Thank you also for donations presented this week including £50 from the Coventry & District Caledonian Society and £100 from Mr Copas.

In last week's column we had in incorrect spelling of one of our contributors.

It was Alan Ledwidge and his family and friends who came all the way from Australia and Ireland for his 50th birthday and were very generous in donating to the Appeal.

We are busy preparing for Myton's Annual Grand Summer Fete which will take place on Sunday July 12 at 12.30.

If you are able to donate plants, fruit & veg, bottles or bake a cake for our Tea Tent and cake stall, we'd love to hear from you.

Another date for your diary is Sunday 28 June. Local folk band The Black Parrot Seaside have organised a 'Concert for Judith' in memory of their guitarist's wife, Judith Chave. The concert will feature local artists and will be held at The Maudslay Hotel, Coventry (no admission fee). More details at www.blackparrotseaside.co.uk